BEING PERFECT CAN KILL YOUR CREATIVE FLOW

If you are doing what you love, and you are putting yourself out there, but still constantly feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed, and left wondering if you make the cut. You might be suffering from perfectionism. But being perfect kills creativity.

And the opposite of perfect isn’t mediocre; it’s real.

Perfect is misleading, and perfectionism is in fact, a weakness. It promises beauty, meticulousness, and dedication, and while it may deliver motivation and high performance, it can also paralyze our creative process. Sure, it’s helpful for passing an exam, or calculating complex equations, but anyone suffering from even an ounce of perfectionism might begin to procrastinate, simply because they can’t fail on something they haven’t even started.

Perfectionism can often lead to negative thinking.Perfectionism can prevent us from creating with love.

If you are inherently creative and happen to be a perfectionist you are also probably petrified to get your work out there. But in our creative worlds, what is actually labeled good enough? It’s subjective. And this “subjectivity” is what gives us that anxiety.

Perfectionism can be a deep fear of judgment incognito. More often than not, us creative types are afraid of receiving genuine feedback. But listen up; we all NEED feedback to create a masterpiece, right? These negative thoughts that are connected to our perfectionism can ruin creative inspiration.

How can you craft something amazing if you can’t stop obsessing about how perfect it is or is not? Attention to detail can be a requirement, and this is fine, but paralysis will strike us if we don’t have reasonable and attainable goals.

We are part of a generation that has become obsessed with analyzing metrics. We crave evaluation, and we need to know how well we’re performing in comparison to those around us, simply because this is how we grew up. But here’s the reality. Nothing is ever out of reach for a critic. Someone in the world will always uncover flaws or dislike your work. No matter how much time and effort you’ve put into perfecting your creation.

Young people are commonly internalizing this contemporary myth that everything, including themselves, should be perfect. Yet perfection is an impossible task to complete. Those who become engaged with it are inevitably setting themselves up for disappointment. Before you allow yourself to feel discouraged, and let those perfectionist tendencies prevent you from attempting creative endeavors. Know this…

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Done is better than perfect. Relish in the fact that a project that is completed is better than project that is perfect. Internalize this. Allow yourself to structure the creativity. If you’re maxing out your creative time on one task, move on and come back to it. When you’ve hit a roadblock, allow yourself to step away.

Take time to recharge, because when we are working on something we are passionate about, taking a break, changing our point of view, and a little reevaluation goes a long way.

Perfection might be a myth, but it’s been destroying the creative process in ways that are all too real. The Daily Guru is keen on sharing pivotal literature to guide us on a path to wellness; Brené Brown offers up an incredible point of view on perfectionism and revealing our own insecurities in her best selling book, The Gifts of Imperfection.

Ask yourself how much being perfect actually influences your unique creative process. How much time per week is taken up by these perfectionist tendencies? How much of that time could have and should have been allocated for your creativity?

Does this hit home for you?Are you ready to battle your perfectionism?

Make time for rest.

Make time for the creativity to flow.

Make time for putting a process in place.

With relevant research coming in from trusted sources like The Harvard Business Review, Thrive Global, Mr. Sidney Blatt of Yale, and countless Doctors and Professors of Psychology, we hope you can find what works for you, and keep your perfectionist tendencies in check.

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